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Please see Gordon Ray’s email below. Thanks to the high level of research and persistence of Gordon’s team of dedicated citizens, the Gilbert Town Council is looking at the ICC 2012 Building Codes like they never have in the past. So far the Council has hit the pause button.

Tomorrow they vote. PLEASE send an email and/or attend this meeting to speak out against adoption of these codes. This email address will reach Mayor John Lewis and all Council members: councilmembers@gilbertaz.gov. Town Hall, 50 E. Civic Center Drive, Gilbert, AZ 85296.

How can any of these codes honestly be about safety issues? Is your house still standing? Is every house in Gilbert still standing? What about all the office buildings, grocery stores, and government buildings? All were built with tons of previous codes. None were built with these proposed 2012 Codes! None of the homes and buildings built without these codes have presented any hazards. Children haven’t gotten shocked from sticking screwdrivers, paperclips, or anything else into the outlets.

Please tell the Council: Even if a code is an improvement, that improvement shouldn’t be made into a law. The improvement should be a choice between the builder and the person paying for the construction. Just because some private entities wrote those codes, forcing them on the citizenry is NOT supporting the Free market. Leave the Free market to compete on its own, without more onerous regulations.

Enough of Government Regulations at all levels! All of these monsters got their start at the local level. Kill the monster while it’s young, before it turns into the Rottweiler that runs your household.

October 28 is the deadline for submitting your objections to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plan to reintroduce wolves into several Arizona counties. The USFWS also intends to maintain the Mexican gray wolf as "endangered." Believe me, if these wolves are introduced into Gila, Coconino, Navajo, and Graham counties, it will be livestock, wildlife, pets, humans, and the economy that will be endangered.

There are two issues:

The first relates to the proposed changes to the Mexican wolf experimental nonessential population rule. This expands the boundaries. Click HERE. You will see where to comment in the top right corner.

The second relates to the continued listing of Mexican gray wolves as an endangered subspecies in the Southwest. Click HERE.

WHAT TO WRITE

You don't need to be eloquent or follow the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service onerous suggestions for what to say. What's needed is for Arizonans to stand up and speak out against both the Reintroduction and the Reclassification.

The following article was written by Donna Daly, a resident of Gila County. If you live in Gila, Navajo, Graham, or Coconino county, or if you have a cabin in any of these areas, or if you have a business in these counties, you need to read every sentence of Ms. Daly's article. The deadline for comments to the U.S. Fish & Game is 10/28/2013. No hearings have been scheduled in areas where these wolves are to be released! All of the animal rights activists from across America know about it. Not us! These members of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife don't even live in Arizona where these animals will be released. I live within 30 feet of the Tonto National Forest. I know what coyotes can do. I love all wild animals. I love wolves. It is criminal to release them in these areas, where they will be shot and killed by people protecting their families and livelihood. If the animal rights people want to preserve wolves, release them in remote areas, not near people, and especially not near children! Don't release them where they will kill pets and livestock and ruin the economy of the towns that thrive on the recreational trade.

This is what Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and all the Democrats want! They want to grind America into the ground.

Thursday, October 3, 2013: Payson Tea Party, 6:00-7:30 pm, Tiny’s Family Restaurant, 600 Arizona Highway 260, Payson. The speaker is Steve Smith, a long time Gila County rancher, who will share about “The Mexican Gray Wolf in the Western United States.” Come hear about this Fish and Wildlife program to relocate these wolves in Rural Arizona and the costs to taxpayers.

Find out more about this dangerously stupid reintroduction of wolves into the forests of Arizona, thanks to the overreach into our State by the EPA and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

This afternoon, July 30, 2013, the Town Council meets in a Study Session at 4 pm to talk about the 2012 ICC building codes. Click here for more information. Your attendance in support of the citizens of Gilbert is appreciated.

A few weeks ago, I asked each Council member for his/her opinion on who has the burden of proof for adopting codes into law? Should individual citizens be expected to prove that each of hundreds of codes should NOT be made law? Or should Town employees be required to prove why they SHOULD be made law?

In response to that question, Council Member Jared Taylor responded by copying me on an email he sent on July 9 to Patrick Banger, Gilbert's Town Manager:

Hi Patrick,

As far as I can tell, the purpose of having building codes is to solve problems. For example, smoke detectors save lives so we mandate them. There is clear data to show this.

As I’ve listened to Kyle’s team, I’m not sure they are focused on solving problems in our community, but more on passing along the recommendations from national/international bodies.

I realize a few state-mandated items were withdrawn, but that didn’t come from our building community. Don’t get me wrong, the IBC’s have some positive things in them.

As you probably know, the 2012 codes will add hundreds of new regulations on our builders. Many builders will profit by the additional work and just pass the cost on to our citizens. The citizens will eventually carry the cost of all the expensive fees, inspections, and hours it takes to design, review, and inspect to the new and existing regulations. This will cost Gilbert families millions of additional dollars very quickly. I wonder about the real value here and can’t support something that isn’t empirically validated to solve problems.

As a result, it seems reasonable that I get hard empirical justification on every new regulation that is being recommended. I would like to see the statistics of how many injuries, deaths, or other harms the lack each regulation has caused in Gilbertand how this new regulation is proven to address the issue.

If we are not solving actual problems, we are simply creating a huge amount of waste for our citizens in government jobs, fees, reviews, inspections, etc. This is a simple ROI exercise that should have been part of the original process.

I would like to have someone on your team provide me this analysis. I’m OK to receive it in a spreadsheet. I know this may seem like a tall order, but given the massive imposition on our community these hundreds of new regulations will place, it’s really not that much.

According to Gordon Ray, a local builder, here are two examples of what happens on almost every building inspection in Gilbert. This is one of many reasons that several local professionals and tradesmen from the construction and building industry in Gilbert have been fighting against the Town Council's adoption of the 2012 ICC (International Code Council) building codes. Gilbert needs to have their own simple, justifiable codes, rather than hundreds of international codes, many of which are expensive, not applicable, and misinterpreted by the Town's inspectors.

Please note that Gilbert's inspector doesn't even cite the specific code that has been "violated." If he bothered to "look it up," he might have to actually read it. If he had read it, he could have saved the sub-contractor and the Gilbert homeowner time and money. The sub-contractor just submits to the list of violations (right or wrong) because it takes him more time and costs him more money to do the Inspector's job by looking up the code and proving that the inspector is wrong. Ultimately, these costs are eaten by the consumer. Everybody pays the price....except the Town inspector.

Example #1: The inspector issued a turn down notice, citing only "Wrong bushing in electrical panel." After the electrician spoke to the inspector, it was determined that the electrician was correct in his application. It took about $80.00 labor to get the inspector to admit he was wrong.

Example #2: The inspector issued a turn down notice, citing only "No foam in attic."

There was a time when foam was used on gable ends. If and when a house burned down, the code stated that the fumes from the fire would be toxic. So, the code stated no foam in attics. However, the code also states that you can have foam in the attic, if you put drywall on your walls and ceilings. Such was the case in this example. However, the sub-contractor went ahead and removed it, even though he was correct. He missed a few small 2" x 3" pieces, so the Inspector (incorrectly) turned it down again. So, the sub went back and removed every tiny piece. The cost to this private business? $185.00 rather than fight with the Town Inspector.

Today at 4 pm, there will be a Town Council Study Session to discuss the possible adoption of hundreds of more pages of "codes." The meeting will be held in the Council Chambers, Gilbert Municipal Center, 50 E. Civic Center Dr.

Gilbert Watch recently posted an article titled The 2012 ICC's New Regulations: Will Gilbert Adopt them?If you would like to gain some insight into the pro and con discussion at the Town Council level about the wisdom of adopting several hundred pages of new regulations in Gilbert, please attend the Tuesday, July 30 Study Session. This is a discussion only; no votes will be taken.

The meeting will be held in the Council Chambers of the Gilbert Municipal Center, 50 E. Civic Center Drive, beginning at 4:00 pm.

If you cannot attend, you can watch the meeting on Gilbert Live Channel 11. Gilbert keeps an archive of past meetings, so, if you cannot watch it live, you can watch it later at your convenience.

2. Presentation and discussion on the adoption of the following technical codes:

2012 International Building Code

2012 International Residential Code

2012 International Mechanical Code

2012 International Plumbing Code

2012 International Fuel Gas Code

2012 International Energy Conservation Code

2012 International Fire Code

2012 International Green Construction Code

2011 National Electric Code

2013 Code for the Enforced Removal or Abatement of Prohibited Conditions, and Arizonans with Disabilities Act and possible amendments thereto as set forth in the Town of Gilbert Building and Construction Regulations 2013 edition.

The following chart depicts the proliferation of just one family of codes: International Residential Code:

The issue isn't, "Are the codes sound"? Most, not all, are technically sound. Many codes provide wonderful, new techniques for energy efficiency. That isn't the point. The point is, "Why are town and city Councils across America turning them into LAWS?" Why are they being shoved down the throats of American tradesmen and citizens?

Town and city management routinely present these code "updates" to town and city Councils, recommending they be made law. Shouldn't the "burden of proof" for why a code should be a law be on the shoulders of government employees to prove?

Haven't we had enough federal domination and intrusion into our lives?